Metal awning



A. H. KLUDJIAN ETAL 2,523,534

IIETAL AWNING Sept 26, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Film; July 14, 1947 Sept. 26, 1950 A,

Filed July 14,1194? 1-1. KLUDJIAN ErAL 2,523,534

METAL AWNING 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 qfig: 5.

I Q a E ar-xz ey Patented Sept. 26, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METAL AWNING Application July 14, 1947, Serial No. 760,828

Avedis H. Kludjian,

9 Claims. (Cl. 160-62) This invention relates to awnings, and particularly to all-metal awnings for home and store use, and involves a new and hitherto unknown construction and principle of operation.

This awning utilizes lazy tongs as a support, and opens or projects automatically and can be manually retracted to any desired degree, and irrespective of Whether the awning is fully open or partly retracted, thermal circulation is provided, and though forming an excellent protection against rain or sun, the surrounding landscape is visible through the awning. Thus, unlike conventional awnings which block out the view, this new awning provides for observation. Also, this awning, though made of metal through out, is retracted in the same way and by the same means as the conventional canvas awning, and projects relatively little when fully retracted. It is also capable of being arranged to form concave or convex when;fully opened.

When opened or projected the awning is rigid, and unless the overhang is exceptionally great, requires no arms or struts for support, the lazy tongs providing all of the support necessary.

In describing the invention reference will be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the invention shown in fully projected position.

Fig. 2 is a broken bottom plan view of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view showing the folded position of the lazy tong links and the vanes.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevation of the securing means for the vanes and the stop means for limiting the degree of opening of the lazy tongs.

Fig. 5 is a section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is another view similar to Fig. 4 but showing the position of links and vanes in partly retracted position.

The invention consists of a pair of spaced lazy tongs having means at one end for securing the tongs to some portion of a window frame or the like, and a vane for each linkage or section of the tongs and securely fastened thereto; means for projecting the awning when released, and means for retracting the awning at will.

The awning includes two lazy tongs l9 and I I, one for each side of the awning and each consisting of a multiplicity, of sections interlinked in the conventional manner, the initial section 12 being secured to the bracket I3 by its parallel bars Hi and i5 instead of by the conventional method of connecting by the cross bars no sliding or slip joint being thus required and per mitting direct pivotal connections, these parallel bars being pivoted to the bracket at I6 and I1.

With the center pivots of the various linkages located on'exact center between the terminals of the links, the lazy tongs would assume a 45 angle to the support, but for aesthetic reasons, to provide a camber comparable to that assumed. by

a conventional canvas awning, the center pivot is located closer to the upper terminal than to the lower one. This causes the horizontal bars to gradually change from truly horizontal in the initial section [2 to rearwardly inclined at the front terminal end as indicated at 18, the actual variation'being only about inch to produce a satisfactory camber as shown.

Each of the parallel and inclined links have a forward extension 19 provided with a projecting lug 2! to which one end of a vane 2| is fixedly attached as indicated at 22, and each vertical link 23 is provided with a stop member 24 to cooperate with the extension l9 when the awning is fully projected and thus limit the projection and form a well supported rigid structure. The vanes 2| are preferably welded to the projections through they may be double riveted as shown; the purpose being to produce maximum rigidity in the structure.

The initial vane 25 is hinged at each end to the supporting bracket 53 as indicated at 26 so that it will fold up when the awning is retracted.

At least a portion of the vertical links at the support end are made double as indicated in Fig. 5, showing the horizontal links 21,28 and 29 pivoted between the pair of vertical links 30 and (H to provide exceptional strength in the verticals against bending; single links being satisfactory for the horizontals because they are subjected to compressional stresses only.

Each lazy tong is provided with a compression spring 32 preferably near the forward end, to cause the awning to open fully, and a rope and pulley arrangement is provided for retracting the awning as indicated at 33 and 34 in Fig. 2.

It will be noted that because of the rigid attachment of the vanes to the horizontal link extensions, that a space 35 is left between the forward edge 36 of one vane and the underlying rearward edge 31 of the next lower vane, thus affording a passage for air to promote thermal circulation, and also to provide visibility through the spaces and allow the passage of daylight while stopping sunlight thus decreasing the darkness in the room protected by the awning.

As will readily be realized, an obverse curve is formed in the awning if the center pivots are located closer to the bottom pivot, and if they are exactly centered the awning will assume a uniform slope of 45. v 1

The awning is normally urged to open by gravity; however, the friction between the links may become sufficient to' overcome thisurgence, therefore a suitable compression spring 32 is coupled between pivots at somepoint'near the lower or forward end of the awningfand this spring continuously urges the awning to open, and is restrained by the cords 33 so that the function of the cords is to retract the awning and to limit opening thereof.

As illustrated fragmentarily in Fig. 4, the awn ing is shown in fully extended position in which position the clearance is maintained between the forward edge of one vane and the rearward edge of the next vane forward to allow normal daylight to enter and to allow thermal circulation and provide visibility through the awning. If greater visibility is desired or more light is dedesired, the cords 33 are drawn, retracting the awning as indicated fragmentarily in Fig. 6, thus increasing the height of the gaps between the vanes and shortening the projection of the awning. This increase is due to the fact that the vanes are fixed on the horizontal link extensions and therefore must change their angularity in conformity with the angular change of the horizontal links.

When the awning is fully retracted as fragmentarily shown in Fig. 3 the vanes project upwardly, the initial vane 25 being raised to a relatively vertical position by the first fixed vane; pivoting of the initial vane being necessary because it is supported by the mounting bracket which is stationary.

It will be noted that the stops 24 engage the underside of the lugs on the horizontal link extensions when the awning is fully extended, thus limiting the extension to a specific degree, each vertical link thus supporting the next section and thereby forming an absolutely rigid structure when the awning is fully extended.

When the awning is extended, a direct thrust is transmitted from the center pivot of one vertical link to the lower end of the next link rearwardly as indicated by the arrow 38 thus developing a bending stress in the vertical link, and for this reason, at least the rearward set of vertical links are either made of greater cross-section, or as illustrated, double links are provided to resist that bending stress.

We claim:

1. A metal awning comprising; a pair of spaced lazy tongs and mounting means for one end thereof, and a vane for each section of the lazy tongs and extending across and having the respective ends attached to registrable sections of the respective tongs of the pair; said sections including each a vertical link and a transverse link having an intermediate pivotal connection located off center vertically between the ends of the vertical links to form a camber in the awning when extended; said lazy tongs having said one end pivotally supported by said mounting means through two parallel spaced transverse links and said mounting means extending upwardly above the uppermost of said two parallel spaced transand forwardly at an angle of approximately 45 degrees relative to the link when the awning is extended.

3. A structure as defined in claim 2; in which each vertical link includes a stop member projecting forwardly from its upper end to engage said offset portion on its cooperative transverse link to function as a stop for limiting the'extension of the lazy tongs and form a rigidly supported structure when the awning is fully extended.

4. A structure as defined in claim 3; and a compression spring cooperative between predetermined pivotal connections of each of the lazy tongs to urge the tongs to open.

5. A structure as defined in claim 4; in which a predetermined number of the vertical links in the region of the support means consist each of two links with intervening transverse links to provide reinforcement to withstand bending stresses transmitted from the center pivot of the next vertical link.

6. A structure as defined in claim 5; pulleys mounted on said support means, and a rope having its terminal ends secured to the front terminal ends of the respective lazy tongs and operating about said pulleys for retraction of the awning to any desired degree against the urgence of said compression springs.

'7. A metal awning comprising; a plurality of spaced lazy tongs each consisting of a plurality of sections including vertical and transverse links having intermediate and terminal pivotal connections; mounting means; each lazy tong being pivotally attached at its rearward end to said mounting means, said transverse links each having an extension projecting forwardly from its front pivotal connection with a portion formed at right angles to the top to form a support; a vane for each section of the lazy tongs and rigidly attached to said supports on the respective lazy tongs and extending and depending therefrom at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, with each vane extending throughout the span of the plurality of lazy tongs, and stop means comprising a forwardly projecting extension at the upper end of each vertical link and cooperative with the portion formed at right angles on the transverse links of the lazy tongs for limiting the extension thereof; urging means cooperating between the sections for urging said lazy tongs to extend, and manually operative means cooperating between said mounting means and said lazy tongs for retracting said awning at will against the urgence of said urging means.

8. A structure as defined in claim '7; in which the intermediate pivotal connections of said vertical links are located slightly away from the actual center between the terminal pivotal connections to form a camber in the awning when the awning is extended.

9. A structure as defined in claim 7, in which the vertical links each consist of two links interposed by the transverse links for increasing the resistance to bending set up through compressional stresses transmitted through the transverse links.

AVEDIS H. KLUDJIAN. LAV/RENCE W. PARRACK. THOMAS A. NEWELL. RUFUS W. BAUMGARDNER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 722,566 Cornetius Mar. 10, 1903 995,771 Coyle June 20, 1911 1,025,442 Anderson et al. May '7, 1912 McNelley July 1, 1941 

